Goodness gracious, great balls of grass!

This robotic mower concept called “Muwi” is featured over at Yanko Design.  It not only mows the lawn automatically, but instead of just leaving a trail of mulched grass, it forms the cuttings into compacted disks and balls that make it easier to pick up, or, perhaps, play with.

I have to ask you, though.  Who in the hell wants to play with balls of grass?

Still, I think it’s a fun and cool concept and hereby proclaim it to be a Groovy Gizmo.

They call it a jet pack, but, when people think of jet packs they actually think rocket engines.  These are two tiny, extremely efficient turbo props that spew out jets of air, so in that way, it’s a jet pack like those little one man boats are called Jet Skies.  In other words, the word “jet” is in there for marketing.

None the less, it’s a strap on flying machine for one person, and it works.

The inventor, Glenn Martin, trusts the safety of the device so much that he lets his wife fly it.

Wait, that sounds wrong.  I mean that in the sense that he trusts it not to kill his wife.

They even let a New York Times reporter give it a try, but of course the guy promptly flew it into a tree.

Video here.  NYT Article here.

I was surprised by the choices that Gizmodo made as their “Weirdest and Most Wonderful Gadget Designs of 2008.”

Yes, some of them are kinda cool, but none of them especially fires my rockets, and if those are the most wonderful gadgets of 2008 then this has been a boring year for gizmos.

Snagged from IntoMobile.com

Meet “Tyrant.”

This is designer Alice Wang’s evil alarm clock that works through peer pressure, intimidation and humiliation.

It apparently connects to your cell phone via bluetooth, and if you don’t wake up at the appointed time, it begins dialing people at random on your cell phone every three minutes so that your friends, family, acquaintances, business contacts, ex-lovers, and probably even your annoyed in-laws will tell you to wake up so that your alarm clock will stop pestering them.

This is pure evil genius.  Two thumbs way up for Alice Wang.  But I would never, never get one for myself.  Ever.

I would have given an arm and a leg for one of these when I was a science nerd in high school.

I came upon this at Wal-Mart yesterday.

It’s a Barbie sized Jesus doll that quotes scripture, tells bible stories, and gives sermons.

It’s also long-winded, because after I pushed the button on His back, Jesus went on and on, and kept going long after I put Him back on the shelf and wandered away.

This toy is surreal in a way that the late Philip K. Dick would have either absolutely loved, or been terrified by.

Combine this with the AI of the various robotic toys that are coming out now, and by Christmas 2010 we’ll have little Jesus dolls that follow you around the house, quoting scripture and asking you to accept Him into your heart, until you’ve been completely saved.

God be praised.  And keep plenty of batteries on hand.

For years and years, and years, I would prefer to use anything but Outlook as my email client.  When Google came out with Gmail, I was hooked on that.  Still am, actually.

Microsoft made significant improvements with Outlook with version 2003, to the point where I grudgingly liked it, but still only used it when I had to.  With version 2007 it actually started growing on me, but still.  Why bother?  I have Gmail.

Then two things happened.  One, Google opened up Gmail to IMAP Access, and two, I stumbled upon Xobni.

Xobni is a Outlook add-in that even Bill Gates loves.  What it does is comb through all the emails you have ever sent and received, and puts the pertinent information into a relational database that shows you, in an incredibly useful way, all the vital facts about your day-to-day communications, who is linked with who, who has sent you what, and when, etc.  The way they describe it, it turns your own email into a virtual social networking site.

I take a step back from that statement, because I feel they’re just using “social networking” as a buzz term.  I can see what they mean, but, no — it’s still just email.  But it’s email where it is very easy to find exactly who it was that Bob was talking about when someone needed to modify widget X, or who was it that sent you that invitation to the Shpongle concert two years ago.  Or what was the name of that science fiction writer who, uh, so-and-so was talking about… something Ledbetter?

When you have Xobni loaded, you’re three clicks away from the answer.

It is so useful, that I fully expect Microsoft to buy it and make it part of Outlook.  Because when you add Xobni to Outlook, it makes Outlook kick email ass, and I have never used any email client that has been such a pleasure to work with.

UPDATE:  As of May 5, 2008, it has gone into open public beta and can be downloaded without an invitation here:  http://www.xobni.com/download

Oh my God they didn’t.

Yes, they did.

This is a real, working Wi-Fi detector on the front of this tee shirt.

From ThinkGeek, masters of this kind of brainiac fun, you can get this for less than $30 and be the King Hell Ubergeek of the party. But, only if there’s Wi-Fi around.  Which, if you are a King Hell Ubergeek, there will be. Or you wouldn’t be there.

Product Features

• Glowing animated shirt dynamically displays the current wi-fi signal strength.
• Shows signal strength for 802.11b or 802.11g
• Black 100% Cotton T-Shirt
• Animated Decal is Removable (with hook and loop fasteners) for Easy Washing
• Battery Pack is Concealed in a Small Pocket Sewn Inside the Shirt
• Runs for hours off three AAA Batteries (not included)